Our first day at Noatak. (didn’t wake until 9 – even though every one here seems to get up before they’ve gone to bed – at like 4.30 or 5.)
We spent the night in a triple room in the second camp. The first camp - a series of purpose built portacabins fitted together - of about 30 people was already full of camp supervisors, ice road makers, geologists, etc….. Our camp – again made up of purpose built portacabins with adjoining doors will hold about another 45 people and will have similar facilities (a common room with working TV and phones, loads of triple rooms, kitchen and canteen, shower room with 6 showers, toilets around same number, smoking room and boot room, and laundry. ) However, being almost the first to arrive, our camp had no water, only one working toilet and looked like a building site.
The guy putting it together – nicknamed ‘big bird’ by the entire staff is - like a lot of the Alaska oil people - a retired old-school rigger tempted out of retirement by a fat pay packet as a part time, but hands on consultant. He’s also a complete anglophile and the nicest gentlest bloke you could ever meet, he’s also about 65 which is crazy when you think how rough and remote it is out here. (Apparently there’s a shortage of experienced staff, although there’s fresh, inexperienced people queueing up to get on the slope – as they call the remote oil field up here – because of the money!)
Big bird immediately warned us not to walk to the other camp which is literally only 100 metres away across the ice pad. The reason? RABID ARCTIC FOXES. I kid you not!!!
When we ignored his advice thinking he was probably a bit senile – the next person we talked to warned us about the rabid arctic foxes again. He told us about one of the workers finding his shovel covered in blood and fur – evidence of a rabid arctic foxes lunacy and savagery apparently. (although having seen these cute critters its hard to believe.) Statistically speaking, up 85% of all the foxes here are rabid or rabies carrying. Something which everyone here repeatedly reminds us, although each time the exact percentage varies by as much as 20%.
Anyway, everyone drives tiny distances in their pick up trucks and we’ve been offered one of the forever-on pick ups to take whenever we like.
Noatek so far consists of these two camps – squat, sprawling collections of purpose built portacabins – lots of heavy machinery – JCBs, fork lift trucks, pick up trucks, mini moon buggies, petrol tankers, normal juggernaut lorries, rolligons, water carriers, giant drills and cranes, massive tungsten light stands 30 ft tall (all of which are permanently on), a workshop they’ve just put together (made of – yes you’ve guessed it – slightly larger portacabins piled on top of each other) and one hole in the ground 80ft deep surrounded by bits of dismantled rig! All of it on an ice pad (made from water drawn from the nearest lake ) again to protect the tundra. This is connected to the lake by an ice road 5 miles long. And that’s it – nothing else but frozen wasteland from horizon to horizon with a few rabid arctic foxes thrown in for good measure and a hibernating bear or two. How cool is that?
Work-wise everything’s looking hunky dory. We met the camp supervisor who’s very friendly and lent us his very hands on intern to drive us around site and give us the low down. On top of that we filmed a great sequence at night of the drilling team making the first hole in the ground – about 80ft deep, lowering in conductor piping and then welding it together. Everything looks great in these conditions, even if it sounds mundane. Watching JCBs wielding massive pipes of steel and burly rough necks pulling on ropes and welding metal is what this program is all about. (The two guys drilling the whole had been working for 48 hours straight with no sleep. I chatted to themon camera at around 10 pm and they hadn’t slept since 5am the previous morning, and didn’t expect to finish until 4am. The first night they got here they slept in our unfinished camp and the heating wasn’t even working so I doubt that night they got much sleep either.) I’m starting to feel seriously guilty about the amount of sleep we get (I’ve had more in a night here -13 hours our first night – than some of the staff get in a week.)
Still everyone here is really friendly, and it seems like we know most people already – way more sociable and less redneck retarded than the average gulf rigger. But maybe that’s cos the moneys better and consequently so’s the level of intelligence.
Made it to bed around 10 for a spot of my book, ‘Atomised’, before la la land.
We spent the night in a triple room in the second camp. The first camp - a series of purpose built portacabins fitted together - of about 30 people was already full of camp supervisors, ice road makers, geologists, etc….. Our camp – again made up of purpose built portacabins with adjoining doors will hold about another 45 people and will have similar facilities (a common room with working TV and phones, loads of triple rooms, kitchen and canteen, shower room with 6 showers, toilets around same number, smoking room and boot room, and laundry. ) However, being almost the first to arrive, our camp had no water, only one working toilet and looked like a building site.
The guy putting it together – nicknamed ‘big bird’ by the entire staff is - like a lot of the Alaska oil people - a retired old-school rigger tempted out of retirement by a fat pay packet as a part time, but hands on consultant. He’s also a complete anglophile and the nicest gentlest bloke you could ever meet, he’s also about 65 which is crazy when you think how rough and remote it is out here. (Apparently there’s a shortage of experienced staff, although there’s fresh, inexperienced people queueing up to get on the slope – as they call the remote oil field up here – because of the money!)
Big bird immediately warned us not to walk to the other camp which is literally only 100 metres away across the ice pad. The reason? RABID ARCTIC FOXES. I kid you not!!!
When we ignored his advice thinking he was probably a bit senile – the next person we talked to warned us about the rabid arctic foxes again. He told us about one of the workers finding his shovel covered in blood and fur – evidence of a rabid arctic foxes lunacy and savagery apparently. (although having seen these cute critters its hard to believe.) Statistically speaking, up 85% of all the foxes here are rabid or rabies carrying. Something which everyone here repeatedly reminds us, although each time the exact percentage varies by as much as 20%.
Anyway, everyone drives tiny distances in their pick up trucks and we’ve been offered one of the forever-on pick ups to take whenever we like.
Noatek so far consists of these two camps – squat, sprawling collections of purpose built portacabins – lots of heavy machinery – JCBs, fork lift trucks, pick up trucks, mini moon buggies, petrol tankers, normal juggernaut lorries, rolligons, water carriers, giant drills and cranes, massive tungsten light stands 30 ft tall (all of which are permanently on), a workshop they’ve just put together (made of – yes you’ve guessed it – slightly larger portacabins piled on top of each other) and one hole in the ground 80ft deep surrounded by bits of dismantled rig! All of it on an ice pad (made from water drawn from the nearest lake ) again to protect the tundra. This is connected to the lake by an ice road 5 miles long. And that’s it – nothing else but frozen wasteland from horizon to horizon with a few rabid arctic foxes thrown in for good measure and a hibernating bear or two. How cool is that?
Work-wise everything’s looking hunky dory. We met the camp supervisor who’s very friendly and lent us his very hands on intern to drive us around site and give us the low down. On top of that we filmed a great sequence at night of the drilling team making the first hole in the ground – about 80ft deep, lowering in conductor piping and then welding it together. Everything looks great in these conditions, even if it sounds mundane. Watching JCBs wielding massive pipes of steel and burly rough necks pulling on ropes and welding metal is what this program is all about. (The two guys drilling the whole had been working for 48 hours straight with no sleep. I chatted to themon camera at around 10 pm and they hadn’t slept since 5am the previous morning, and didn’t expect to finish until 4am. The first night they got here they slept in our unfinished camp and the heating wasn’t even working so I doubt that night they got much sleep either.) I’m starting to feel seriously guilty about the amount of sleep we get (I’ve had more in a night here -13 hours our first night – than some of the staff get in a week.)
Still everyone here is really friendly, and it seems like we know most people already – way more sociable and less redneck retarded than the average gulf rigger. But maybe that’s cos the moneys better and consequently so’s the level of intelligence.
Made it to bed around 10 for a spot of my book, ‘Atomised’, before la la land.
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